Follow along as my 2013 DH bike is built—literally.

I will be posting photos of my 2013 ride as it gets built. And not just "Ooh, I got a frame and watch me as I put parts on it" but really AS IT GETS BUILT. From raw tubes and aluminum, through bending, notching, welding and powdercoat, to a completed bicycle frame. The frame is a beta prototype of the GG/DH, a single-pivot DH workhorse with adjustable geo, pedaling efficiency, and durability held top-of-mind during the design process. The folks behind Guerrilla Gravity are personal friends and race competitors of mine, and watching along as they go through the design, prototype, and eventual production learning curve has been awesome and eye-opening. They spent a year and a half designing the first proto, had it built last spring, and rode/raced them the entire 2012 season here in Colorado. Design tweaks were made, bits were rethunked, and now they're moving in to the "beta" phase and producing 10 of these Bad Larrys, one of which will be mine.

First, a few links for anyone wanting to know a bit moar about the people, the company, the bike, etc.

Now, on to the goods: images and wordings following the build process of the Beta frames. I'll keep it classy and just post stuff they've made public, so the updates will only be as quick as I get them. First we start with some raw materials...

I was just informed yesterday that I have been slacking in the "post pictures of my 2013 ride" department. I blame the passing of Colorado Amendment 64, but I digress. Here's some moar pics of the new wHip as she gets builded:

Getting jiggy with it:

Bended rear triangle tubes:

Bended but not notcheded down tubes:

Approaching the Will Smith Zone:

Fitting tubeses:

We have arrived at maximum jiggyness:

At this very moment, the front triangles are off at the welder/powdercoater having their metals glued together with Teh Lightning. So stoked to (hopefully) get a sneak peak at the frames when they return. Rear triangle tubes are being notched and fitted and will head to said welder next.

This is a pretty cool thread. Do you have your components all planned already?

I do, actually. It'll be a predominantly SRAM build, so Code brakes, XO shifter/derailer, Truvativ cranks and chainguide and stem. There will be Sunline bars, Cane Creek headset, and Mavic 823s laced to DT 440 hubs as non-SRAM stuffs.

GG mainly specs X-Fusion rear shocks on these, with an optional upgrade to a Cane Creek Double Barrel. I have decided to eschew the normalcy and run Rock Shox dampers front and rear, the back being squished via Vivid coil and a Boxxer WC up front to keep me from going over the bars. I think the engineer, Matt, is super excited I'm gonna run RS stuff F&R because he's only ever ridden his design with X-Fusion or CC suspension, and he's a turbo-nerd for that kinda comparative data analysis.

What does that leave? Oh yeah... seat and seatpost? Uuuhhhh... I'll probably have one of each of those items.

I like this thread. Very cool to see it built from the raw. Are you going to the 1000? I will be working contingency tues and wed.

Unfortunately, I am not. Race car isn't done yet, so we're switching the gears and going for next year. Pretty psyched though, it'll give us a bit moar time (like, a year, or something) to race some other stuff before tackling the 1000. Have fun down there!

Originally Posted by danglingmanhood

Now this is a novel thread, a departure from the usual "what new bike should I get?" threads!

Leland: it's definitely a progressive leverage rate. I posted the leverage rate curve in the Ridemonkey thread if you want to check it out. Due to the progression, Cane Creek recommends the coil DB over the Air for most riders. My wife's Beta will have a DB Air, but set to the most linear setup (no air volume spacers, and using the new air spring can with the larger bypass hole)

Just got a shot from the guys of the frame being glued together with Teh Lightning™... pretty cool. I believe the front triangle welds will be finished today or tomorrow, and the tubes for the rear triangle will be delivered for welding tomorrow evening.

Next will be powder coating (all beta frames will be None Moar Black) and then BOOSH... time to hang parts on it and hit the trails.

Got an email update from GG this morning, basically the front triangles should be hitting the powder coat action today, and all the pieces of the rear triangles have been delivered to the welder. Which means I should be taking delivery of this Bad Larry in two weeks* and I can't be moar stokeder. The latest from the FB page shows the pile o' parts that will become rear triangles in the next week or so...

Straighten the tubes as much as possible and ano instead of poweder coat and this would be my ideal frame. How much $$$ with their cheapest shock option? Would be sweet if they offer it with a RS Kage or Fox Van shock for the simplest DH frame ever.

I dont really understand the curved tube gripe. I would guess the top tube is to help with stand over height and the down tube is to add tire clearance when the front fork is at full squish. Looks to me like this bike is 95% purpose built at least, it just happens to look good too! To each their own on the looks of something though.

Straighten the tubes as much as possible and ano instead of poweder coat and this would be my ideal frame. How much $$$ with their cheapest shock option? Would be sweet if they offer it with a RS Kage or Fox Van shock for the simplest DH frame ever.

The tubes are as straight as possible currently. On the Alpha prototypes, we had two bends in the downtube, and I ditched one of them for the Betas with the redesigned headtube junction. The top tube bend is for standover clearance and producing an integral "gusset" with the seat tube without adding an extra part. And, the remaining downtube bend is there for suspension pivot and shock clearance. The rear triangle tube bends are for tire and crank clearance.

As far as anodizing, we may look into it in the future, but it isn't currently offered. The reason is because anodizing reduces the fatigue strength, and we need to do fatigue testing specifically with anodized parts before we sell bikes with that finish. I don't think it is a major factor, but it's something I want to test before we offer it.

Beta frame price with shock was $1925, with a reasonably priced upgrade to a CCDB. We recently picked up an OEM account with Fox, and the base model shock is now a Vanilla RC. Production price for the frame with Van RC will be announced soon, but will probably be a little higher.

Frames are coming right along, starting to get pretty stoked to possibly get some riding time on 'er before the snow really starts to fly here in Colorado. Riding my trail bike is sweet and I love it but it just arn't the same as shredding a DH rig...

The first five front triangles, welding is finished and ready to powdercoat:

Frames are coming right along, starting to get pretty stoked to possibly get some riding time on 'er before the snow really starts to fly here in Colorado. Riding my trail bike is sweet and I love it but it just arn't the same as shredding a DH rig...

The first five front triangles, welding is finished and ready to powdercoat:

The frames are made from 7005, which is an age-hardening alloy, and in general, it is considered not necessary to heat treat. However, an artificial age-hardening heat treat can be done after welding to reach full strength without waiting for it to occur naturally.
In our case, since reliability is a top goal, we do perform an artificial age hardening heat treatment after welding.

Thanks for all the kind words so far. Here's a quick shot from earlier this week, the rear triangles are finished up on the first 5 and getting ready to get powdercoated. Pretty stoked at this point, it was Wednesday I think? Anyways, another big update to the project is on the horizon, but wanted to get this picture in the mix to tide ya'll over.

Looks like oval axle holes. Is there a flip chip at the rear axle for 2 chainstay lengths? How does the brake mount accomodate that?

Yep, a "flip chip" indeed that adjusts chainstay length from 17" to 17-1/2". The hangar is a separate piece from the chip and the frame itself. The through-axle goes through both the drop out and the derailer hangar and keeps it all nice and snug-like. As for brake mount accommodating it... to be honest I'm not sure. There is no adjustment for the brake that I remember, I'll have to take a look later this evening. And I'll make sure to get pictures of all this real soon...

I decided to try a fixed brake caliper mount on the alpha prototypes to see if it would work vs moving the brake caliper when you swap chainstay settings. For that experiment, I put the brake caliper in a location as if the long chainstay setting didn't exist, and it still worked in the long chainstay setting.

For the Betas, I moved the brake caliper mount to be centered between the short and long settings. With this batch, we'll have tested the following brakes: Shimano SLX & Saint, Avid Code, & Hayes Prime. Based on the experience with the alphas, I doubt we'll have an issue. If we do, I can add a second set of holes, but I wanted to minimize the PITA of changing geometry. The goal was to make it easy enough where people actually use the adjustments.